The Wedding Banquet from director Ang Lee follows Wai-Tung living in Manhattan with his boyfriend Simon, and his attempts to shake off the parental pressure to marry [a woman]. A suitable woman at that. The couple come up with a grand plan of Wai-Tung marrying Wei Wei, a struggling tenant of Wai’s, so that Wei-Wei can get a green card (living permit) and Wai can get both his parents off his back, as well as a tax benefit from being married. Their grand plan, of course, does not go accordingly when Wai-Tung’s parents decide to fly over for the presumably lavish wedding.
The Wedding Banquet, for me, was a complete culture shock – I previously had no experience or knowledge of Chinese traditions of marriage, and seeing it has thoroughly educated me on the rituals and formalities traditionally associated with Chinese weddings. Before seeing the film, I presumed the banquet itself would be a family-dinner-type situation with extra special food, so the real banquet scene certainly raised my eyebrows. As did the let’s-crash-the-newly-weds’-hotel-room scene.
As for acting, editing and other elements of filmmaking, The Wedding Banquet I believe was somewhat lacking in ‘wow-factor’. I didn’t notice many stellar shots or poignant cuts, but there were a few scenes of great acting. What the film lacked in filmmaking techniques, it certainly made up in concept and originality, and was quite amusing, with a number of full-audience laughs, mainly due to layers upon layers of dramatic irony and lost-in-translation moments. The Wedding Banquet was an insightful, delightful experience that really worked the audience’s emotions, that I would recommend but probably not watch again – experiencing the empathetic frustration and pain of the characters once was enough.
The Wedding Banquet
Mardi Gras Film Festival 2017
